Saturday 14th to Monday 16th March, 2020
Posted: 16/03/2020 21:43
Saturday 14th. A moderate ESE'ly wind that slowly veered into the S brought in copious amounts of low cloud and a few showers, the latter being of nuisance value but the former preventing any flying.
Sunday 15th. A moderate to fresh SW'ly that slowly veered to become WSW'ly meant a winching and soaring day at Sutton, the reliable hill lift being supplemented by thermal. Operating heights on the hill were mainly 800-1500' QFE with a number of pilots getting to cloudbase., which was around 3,000' asl. A good start to the visit of the Cambridge University Gliding Club whose member, Phil Atkin, flying his ASW20 posted the 2nd longest flight of the day, 1:44, colleagues Andrew Watson and Rob Femmer had 1:41 in their club's K21 while Timo Wilken, another Cambdridge visitor, had 1:09 in K21 JVZ under the tutelage a Ian McFarlane. YGC's Jesper Mjels had the longest flight, 2:08 flying the Discus, visiting Topcliffe and the Cowesby Bowl during the flight and Toby Wilson and Nora van Genugten shared another of the day's 5 flights to exceed an hour with 1:38 in JVZ. In addition to the above, 9 flights had between 30 and 60 minutes, on a day when 19 launches were flown.
Monday 16th. An initally light to moderate SW blew as an overnight front cleared to the east, the clearing skies providing some good thermal soaring. Later on the wind increased to moderate providing hill soaring and, later in the afternoon, wave. 24 ATs were flown off runway 24, with landings initially on 20 but then increasingly on 24 as the wind freahened. Thermal soaring commenced around 1140 hrs as Rob Bailey flew the Discus for 1:21, one of 9 flights to exceed an hour with a further 11 exceeding 30 minutes. Rob was followed by Phil Atkin, a Cambridge visitor, who flew his ASW20 for 2:39, climbing to cloud base which had risen to around over 4,000' asl. Others achieving similar heights via thermal climbs included Conrad Thwaites in the Discus who had 1:27. Phil's was the second longest flight of the day, the longest, 2:47, being flown by visitor Richard Maskell in his ASW27, who started off thermal soaring, had a spell hill soaring and eventually found some wave that took him to just over 4,000' asl. Richard had John Carter and Jamie Morchant in K21 JVZ for company for the latter part of his flight, JVZ being festonned with cameras as Jamie was part of a film crew taking shots for a gliding based film. The wave became stronger towards the end of the afternoon with Jesper Mjels getting to 8,000' asl in the Discus and visitors Andrew Watson and Jamie Conway the Cambridge K21 HTV geting to 9,400' asl off the last flight of the day. The differing soaring conditions during the day saw thermal soaring gliders visit Easingwold, hill soaring gliders reach the Kepwick ridge and wave soaring gliders the A1 east of Ripon.
This blog describes a snippet of life at the Yorkshire Gliding Club. Why not take a flight and try it yourself, or we can teach you to fly as a full club member.